Feds Should Expedite Green Cards For Spouses Denied Under DOMA

EDITORIAL

July 18, 2013|Editorial, The Hartford Courant

One of the many cruelties visited upon same-sex couples by the federal Defense of Marriage Act was the now-gutted law's harsh treatment of bi-national couples. It forbade U.S. citizens from sponsoring their same-sex spouses for green cards, even if they married in a state that allowed same-sex unions.

Such couples — including several in Connecticut and many of them raising children — would ultimately face a hard choice: living apart or fleeing the United States together.

It's a blessing that the June 27 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down a key portion of DOMA holds the promise of reuniting couples or preventing a spouse from deportation.

Or so Obama administration officials have said in the wake of the high court's ruling.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently affirmed that according to the president's wishes, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will review visa petitions filed on behalf of a same-sex spouses in the same manner as those filed on behalf of an opposite-sex spouse.

Immigration advocates have seen green cards speedily granted in cases that have been reopened. But not every green-card petition has been approved.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has gone to bat for a couple in Connecticut whose green-card application for a British spouse has been denied twice.

Mr. Blumenthal has urged the citizenship agency reconsider all visa applications that were denied because of DOMA.

The applications that were denied because of DOMA probably shouldn't automatically be reconsidered en masse because the circumstances of some couples inevitably will have changed.

But those who suffered the discrimination of DOMA who want to reapply should be offered an expedited path to a decision, and government application fees should be waived. It is, after all, a new day.